Z Edit

Copyediting & Proofreading

Full content & line editing or proofreading, including imbedded instructional comments

Please Note: It’s been a great ride but I’m retiring from copyediting effective 31 August 2014.
I will offer a free sample edit up until that date. If I choose to take on your work, I will edit it for you.

The first step: a free sample edit

To get started, send your complete OR PARTIAL manuscript via email as an attachment in MS Word (.docx, .doc, or .rtf) to Harvey@harveystanbrough.com.(Note: novel, memoir or short fiction collections only)

A sample edit is a full, complete edit of a few pages. I’ll get your sample edit back to you usually the same day. If I believe your manuscript needs a full edit (some don’t) and if I’m interested, I’ll offer to edit for you at a low per-word fee. I’m extremely good at what I do. I won’t offer a service your manuscript doesn’t need.

Copyediting

A copyedit consists of line editing (punctuation, spelling, grammar, sentence structure, syntax), voice, pacing and flow. If content problems pop out at me, I imbed comments containing recommendations. To keep my prices low, I provide a full copyedit only for those manuscripts I would like to read personally. To increase the chance that your manuscript will be one of those, please follow these brief guidelines:

Novel, memoir or short fiction collections only, please

Absolutely NO present-tense narrative, regardless of genre or which fad is currently in fashion

I reserve the right to reject any job or any manuscript for any reason.

Notes
1. When I accept a manuscript for editing, it goes into a queue. I edit manuscripts in the order they were received.
2. If you’d rather not pay for a full edit but you want me to look over your work, you can opt for my Proofreading Service (below).
3. Due to time constraints, I can’t offer to read or review manuscripts without doing a paid edit or proofread.

Proofreading Service

Proofreading consists only of a very light line edit (obvious punctuation errors, spelling or wrong-word errors, reverse constructions or verbs that do not indicate a form of utterance in tag lines, obvious tense shifts and so on).

I will proofread any original (not scanned-in) manuscript for .008 (4/5 of one cent) per word. For example, if your manuscript is exactly 40,000 words, the fee would be $320; if your manuscript is 80,000 words, the fee would be $640. Please don’t ask me for a reduced rate. I’m very good at what I do, and I have to make a living.

Note: I no longer offer proofreading on scanned-in manuscripts.

Fee is payable in advance via check or PayPal. (You do not have to sign up for PayPal to pay via credit card through PayPal.)